Career Choices

If you saw some weird posts from me yesterday, please ignore.  I was re-reading some old posts and tried to re-post a couple that I had taken down that related to why I left my last job.  But they posted with yesterday's date instead of in their original timeline, so I took them right back down and prayed they didn't show up in anybody's news feed.

Anyway, I was reading posts from spring 2009 when I was at my last job. I may think life is tough these day, but it was so much worse back then.  I was working way too many hours, I earned a lot less, and the environment was absolutely toxic.

The named partner that I worked for was an asshole.  He was an asshole to opposing counsel and he was an asshole to everybody that he worked with.  I can see in my posts how I was always holding my breath around him--it was like living with an abusive spouse.  You just never knew when he was going to explode or when he was going to bring you (figurative) flowers.

The other partner I worked for wasn't an asshole (at least not in the same, overt, sense), but he didn't improve life.  He was obviously afraid of the named partner and had no problem letting me take the fall for things that weren't my fault. Fortunately, named partner liked me, so it wasn't career killing.  But I was constantly defending my staff, because I would rather suffer than them (and he would fire somebody for minor infractions).  It would have been nice to have had a superior who would go to bat for me every once in a while.

I've now been at my current job quite a bit longer than I was at that job, and I still have so much anger for the way I was treated there.

Over the last year I have contemplated whether to stay at my current firm or make another change. I know that I am on the partnership track at my current firm, and that I can stay with them for the rest of my career if that is what I want. And now, as a mid-level, is the time to make some decisions.

I will admit that I don't love my practice area. I sort of fell into it.  It can be dry.  I see a lot of the same issues over and over.  I want to be in court more, and we settle virtually everything. (But I think these issues may be the same in any commercial litigation practice.)

What keeps me here is that the environment is so much better than where I was.  I sometimes get frustrated with my bosses, and we all have our asshole days, but there is none of the relentless torture that I suffered as a young lawyer.  Any one of my bosses would stand up for me to another if it came down to it--but nobody is throwing me under the bus anymore, anyway. 

I don't work nearly the hours that I worked back then, and my compensation is much better. My billables are much lower, although I do a lot more nonbillable work, and I have never heard a peep about my billables. I have the flexibility to make appointments or work from home when I need to and not feel like I am being docked for it. And I actually like the people that I work with.

There is a whole lot to be said for all of that. I've been getting calls from recruiters lately, but they've got nothing that would entice me to leave.  I've seen the dark side and I don't want to go back there. And any pay increase would come with a much higher billable requirement.  I'm very happy with my work/pay balance, and I'm not very interested in taking more time away from my family just to make a little more money.

So, in the end, I choose a better working environment over a choice practice area. (And don't get me wrong, I do love my job.) Besides, it's kind of fun to see the quizzical look of people's faces when I tell them what kind of law I practice, because no one ever expects it.